I Knew You Better Than That
by WATERMELON-S33DS
Summary: disaster strikes slugterra and a friendly face decides to make a come back just in time to restore a feeling of hope among everybody!
1. Chapter 1

"Did you guys feel that?" Eli burst into the hideout, his brow was covered in a thick layer of sweat and his entire body shook from a heavy feeling of nervousness.

"Yeah! The whole hideout felt it." Kord responded as he helped Trixie lift up a bookshelf that had fallen over. Broken glass covered the floor, Pronto sobbing as he swept up the remains of his figurine collection that he had tried to rebuild after the last time it was destroyed.

Slugterra had gotten a few earthquakes in the past, nothing worse than a few small rocks falling from overhead, none of which were big enough to do damage to any unlucky skulls from below. But this one... this one was insane!

Eli had been going for an afternoon ride with his slugs, everything was bright and happy and normal. The shaking and rumbling wasn't too bad at first so Eli brushed it off as the usual, but... something strange happened after that...

The shaking stopped for a few seconds, until an energy pulse flew through the air along with a rush of wind. Eli's mecha ended up shutting down, as well as his blaster, for a few seconds, which almost wasn't enough for him to make his get away from the crack that had formed in the ground once the shaking started up again. This time several boulders around him crumbled from the force. A rock that was at least 5 feet tall had fallen from the sky of the undergound world, crushing a nearby group of bushes. He made it about thirty feet away before the ground stood still once more, the hole that had formed behind Eli was about five feet long, two feet across. It was a hazard so Eli covered it up with some arachnet webs, supplied by Spinner, then went on his way, barely able to stay sitting up straight from the scare he had gotten.

"I wonder what that was..." Eli sighed and picked up a chair, setting it up by the dining table before taking a seat.

"Probably just a regular earthquake, we get them all the time. Just... never this bad..." Trixie joined the boy and tapped her chin, concern was heavy in her voice.

"It wasn't _just_ and earthquake though! Some weird... energy wave... pulse... thing... went through the air and disabled my mecha and blaster!" Eli spoke, pressing his palms onto the table to push his body up as he spoke.

"Energy wave?" Kord tilted his head.

"Yeah, almost like an X-mitter had gone off, but there was a really heavy gust of wind too, almost knocked me over..." Eli shook his head and sat down, shock still sat heavy in his heart. "I just hope nobody got hurt..." The boy sighed and ran a hand through his hair, wiping away a bit of sweat in the process.

"We'll wait until things settle down then do some rounds around Slugterra, if there are any caverns that don't have the situation under control we'll help them out." Trixie reassured the boy by placing a hand over his, she smiled before heading to her room to check out the damage there. Eli sighed and grabbed ahold of his bandoleer sliding it off his body and over his head, throwing it to the side.

Burpy jumped up onto the table to sit beside his slinger, a tiny limb pressed against the boy's arm. The infurnus chirped loudly and offered his greatest smile, red eyes lit up with hope.

"Yeah..." Eli smiled down at the slug before picking him up and dropping him onto his shoulder. Burpy trilled and rubbed his head against Eli's cheek, nuzzling the boy with affection.

"Hey, bro, you've been through something pretty stressful, why don't you go take a nap. Me and Pronto'll finish up in here and call you when we head out, alright?" Kord placed a hand onto Eli's back and looked down to him with a soft gaze. Eli said nothing, he just nodded and headed up to this room with his slugs following behind.

"Trust us! Pronto will have this place cleaner than it was before!" The molenoid cheered as he dumped some broken glass into a trashcan. "Rest in peace, my precious..." A tear slid down his cheek as he gave a final farewell salute to one of his favourite crystalline statues.


	2. Chapter 2

Everybody groaned as they entered the hideout, their limbs ached and sores covered their hands. The past few hours had been spent helping with clean up around several caverns, anything from moving debris to digging around collapsed houses to search for lost valuables, or even people!

Even though everybody was tired beyond belief they couldn't help but smile, feeling good for the many good deeds they had done.

"I've got dibs on the shower first!" Eli rubbed his aching shoulder as he walked into the bathroom. He slipped his shirt over his head and turned to the mirror.

His cheeks were covered in thick layers of dirt, the dust stuck to his skin from the thick layer sweat that covered his body head-to-toe. He hadn't noticed that he had gotten a long, red cut on his side. The injury went from his left shoulder blade to his left hip, it wasn't very deep, just enough to draw small amounts of blood. Eli sighed, knowing the injury would sting like a bitch under hot water. He took off his pants and stepped into the shower, letting the hot water warm his skin, which had been cooled by the night air during the later hours of their work.

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"I wonder what caused all this..." Trixie nodded her thanks as Kord handed her a cup of hot chocolate, one of her pale hands clutched a blanket that hung over her shoulders to pull it tighter around her shivering body.

"Eli said there was a weird energy wave, right?" Kord scratched at his chin and tilted his head.

"Indeed he did." Pronto spoke up, joining the group with a cup of coffee in hand.

"Something tells me that's related to the earthquake." The troll spoke, leaning back on the sofa as Pronto sat down next to him.

"What was your first hint?" Trixie smirked and raised an eyebrow. "We just need to figure out _how_ they're related, what caused the both of them..." She hummed in thought.

"We'll have to ask E for more details when he comes out..." Kord sighed and tucked his hands behind his head, his posture grew more relaxed with the action.

The team continued warming themselves up from the cold night and cooling down from the busy day, just as Trixie placed her empty mug onto the table a knocking sounded from the door.

"I got it." Kord hopped up before Trixie could. "Hell...oh..." Kord gasped when he opened the door. It was a man. A man with a face he knew well, of course, Kord had never actually met this man in person before...

He still knew those eyes. He knew the lips that carried a small smile. Blood stained his clothes, the same blood that Kord and Trixie had to clean up from injuries plenty of times.

The visitor was basically an older, taller version of a good friend.

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"Alright, I'm done." Eli spoke as he walked out of the bathroom, a white towel was wrapped around his waist, he held another in his hands and used it to dry his navy locks.

"Just in time, you've got a visitor." Trixie called from where she sat. Eli tilted his head and looked to where his friends were sitting. He stopped breathing and he felt his heart stop. His throat grew tense and his eyes stung, tears threatened to soak his freshly cleaned cheeks.

"Hey sport!" The visitor called, waving to the teenager.

"D...dad..." Eli spoke, his voice cracked and his vision was blurred by the liquid trails that ran down his cheeks.


	3. Chapter 3

"Dad!?" Eli cried out again, sobs escaped his throat as he hugged the man. He didn't care about the dirt from the man's clothes that covered his skin, he was just happy to see his dad again. Will wrapped his arms around the boy and smiled to his son.

Almost as if to make sure it wasn't a dream Eli squeezed his father tighter, looking up with tear filled eyes to see that gentle smile he knew from when he was younger... but... something was different about it. Whatever, Will had been through a lot, so it made sense he wouldn't be exactly the same!

"Dad..." Eli sobbed again, pressing his face into his dad's chest.

"It's good to see you too..." Will hugged Eli tighter.

"Awww, Pronto..." Trixie laughed at the molenoid next to her, Pronto was fighting to hold back tears over the touching family moment.

"Wait... weren't you in the Deep Caverns?" Kord asked, approaching the Shanes slowly. Will and Eli seperated, the man nodded to the troll. "How'd you get out?"

"Didn't you feel it?" Will's expression changed to one of surprise and confusion. "I could've sworn that this entire place was shaking!" As the man spoke Eli sniffed and wiped his eyes.

"That was you?" The boy asked his father. Will nodded.

"Sorry if I caused any damage..." The man sighed, looking a little hurt as he thought about if he caused any trouble.

"It's alright, I'm sure everybody will be more than willing to accept your apology when they know you're back." Trixie spoke up as she patted Pronto's back to comfort him.

"Sounds like a plan! We gotta announce that there's a new team afoot!" Will grinned and grabbed Eli's shoulder, he shook the boy's shoulder gently and chuckled. "Criminals'll think twice before messing with **two** Shanes!"

"Yeah!" Eli cheered, the two highfived.

"By the way, Blakk says 'Hi'." The gang all flinched upon hearing the villain's name. "That's right, I heard about what you did! I'm proud of all of you... You don't have to worry about him coming back, by the way, he's been locked up tight!" Will ruffled Eli's hair.

"So that means we won't have to deal with ghouls anymore?" Trixie smiled.

"Nope!" Will crossed his arms and answered the woman. "By the way, Eli..." He turned his attention to his son.

"Yeah?" Blue eyes turned up to focus on his father's face.

"You might want to put some clothes on..." Will jerked his chin towards the towel the boy wore.

"Oh... right..." Eli chuckled before shuffling out of the room to put in decent attire.


	4. Chapter 4

Cheers echoed through each cavern of Slugterra as Will's return was announced. Trixie, Kord, and Pronto had agreed to go around and help people finish with cleaning up, sending Eli and Will off to catch up for lost time.

Their first order of business: Groom Will. Eli dragged the man to the nearest barber shop and had his hair trimmed. The locks of blue went from flowing down his back in a dirty mop, to being short and sticking up at odd angles. The beard was also dealt with, the barber left him with a nice stubble along his jaw.

His blood and dirt stained clothes were replaced as well, a new version of his hole filled ensemble was easy to find.

Will didn't have a mecha beast, so Eli happily handed over the steering of Lucky to Will, the teenager taking the back of the seat, behind his father.

"It's nice being home, isn't it?" Eli chimed, beaming like a child on christmas.

"Of course it is! Beats dark and damp any day! Those jail cells smelt like death and rotten fish..." Will chuckled.

"Right... I'm sorry we couldn't get you out sooner..." Eli sighed, his shoulders fell as a feeling of guilt washed over his body.

"Don't worry about it! I don't even think it'd of been possible for you to come and get me without having to fight off thousands of Dark Bane..." Will looked over his shoulder and flashed a friendly smile to his son. "You know... you've grown up a lot. I almost didn't recognize you..."

"Well, yeah. 9 year olds and 17 year olds tend to look a lot different from each other." Eli chuckled.

"Wait, I've been gone for 8 years!?" Will stopped the mecha, it was his turn to be guilty. What kind of father left his son for 8 years and sent him to a weird, unfamiliar world!? A crappy one, that's what!

"Don't worry about it, I've done pretty good. And it's all because you told me stories about this place when you came to visit me on the surface." Eli laughed at his father's reaction.

"I guess they did pay off." Will was proud of his son, a true hero.

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**hey! prince here, since i'm needy as heck when it comes to reviews (seriously those things give me life, seeing people leave comments on my work gives me motive and inspiration to keep going!) i've decided i'm gonna do a thing!**

**if u guys want to keep seeing me upload chapters of this i'll need to get at least two reviews on new chapters until i post the next!**

**of course if i don't get two reviews per chapter then i'll probably just update the next chapter later on, and by later on i mean like a week or so.**

**so if i get two reviews on this chapter, i'll post a new one tomorrow! then so on, and so on, and so on.**

**thanks so much to everybody who's read this fic (or any of my fics) and given me feedback, i appreciate it a lot!**


	5. Chapter 5

The two spent the rest of the day catching up, Eli did most of the talking. He told his father stories of all his battles, how he defeated Blakk, and about his rival, Twist.

"We still don't know what happened to him..." Eli huffed and tapped at his chin. It had been half a year since the gang beat Dr. Blakk, and Twist was no where to be seen! The last time they saw the boy was when he was impersonating Redhook...

"Oh, really?" Will raised an eyebrow at the boy. Slugterra was a big place, so it'd be easy to hide away somewhere... but from what Eli said about the guy, Twist had to be big trouble.

Eli yawned and stretched out his arms.

"Feeling tired?" Will chuckled as his son rubbed his eyes with fatigue.

"A little bit..." Eli admitted.

"Well, it's getting pretty late. We should head back home, maybe order in some dinner..." The man tapped his chin as he spoke, thinking about possible places to call.

"Sounds like a good plan to me!" Eli chimed, feeling hungry now that his father had brought up the topic of food.

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"Anybody home?" Will called as the two entered the hideout. The lights were on and nobody responded, must mean they others were still out and about.

"I'll go order dinner, what are ya in the mood for?" Eli asked as he picked up the phone. Before Will could respond Eli tossed a bunch of takeout menus to the man. Will looked through them, quickly skimming the menus for something that'd catch his eye.

Most of the menus were for pizza resteraunts, a few of them listed nothing but burgers and fries served different ways. Will picked out the one with the largest variety of choices on it and handed it to the boy. Eli nodded and happily dialed in the number that was given on the bottom of the paper.

"Hello?" Eli answered, he wandered out of the room to order, leaving Will in the living room. Burpy hopped up to the man and churped happily at seeing his old master. Will reached down to pet the slug, smiling as the infurnus purred and leaned into his touch. The slug turned and chirped again, signalling for the other creatures to join them to meet the legend.

"Alright! It should be here in thirty to forty-five minutes!" Eli chimed as he stepped into the room, smiling when he saw his father surrounded by his team of slugs. "Burpy seems happy to see you again!"

"Oh, really? I couldn't tell." Will chuckled and looked to the orange slug that was curled up into the side of his neck, trilling happily and nuzzling the man vigorously.

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**remember: two reviews and i'll post the next chapter tomorrow!**


	6. Chapter 6

"Eli... Eli." Will shook his son awake, the boy had fallen asleep on the couch after dinner. His friends had returned to their own rooms after Will volunteered to clean up.

"Yeah? ..." The boy yawned and rubbed his eyes as he looked up to his father.

"I've... got some bad news..." The man sighed sadly.

"What is it?" Eli was a little more awake now, he sat up straight and untangled his legs from the blanket that had been placed on his sleeping form earlier.

"Trixie left her belt out here, I was gonna return it to her but... this... fell out of her pack..." As Will spoke he lifted up a small vile. A thick, dark red liquid sloshed around inside, emitting a dull glow in the darkness of the house.

"W... what...?" Worry picked at Eli as he took the vile gently, observing the liquid inside. "That's..." He didn't take his gaze away from the glass.

"Dark water." Will finished his sentance, confirming the boy's fears.

"No... no. It can't be." Eli looked to his father with fear in his eyes. "Trixie would never..." He shook his head slowly, his hands quivered as he handed the object back to his dad.

"I'm... I'm sorry, but I don't think there's any other way she could've gotten this." Will rubbed his hand on Eli's back to sooth the boy. "But, until we can figure out if this is true or not, we should just keep this between us, alright?"

"Yeah... yeah..." Eli sighed and placed his head in his hands. "I can't believe this..." Eli's voice shook as he spoke.

"We'll figure out a way to deal with this." Will hugged the boy to calm him, stroking his head gently.

Will eventually sent Eli up to his room to sleep, taking the couch for his own. Eli couldn't sleep, instead he sat awake for hours on end, worrying about the safety of the gang...

Burpy hopped up and sat on Eli's pillow, red eyes focusing on the saddened face of his slinger.

"I'm alright... just... worried. I can't believe that Trixie's a traitor! Somebody probably planted that on her... but... What if she actually is against us? What do I do...?" Eli shoved his face into his pillow and sighed. Burpy squeaked and patted his slinger's shoulder to support him.

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**two reviews = next chapter tomorrow!**


	7. Chapter 7

Tension made the air grow heavy between Will, Eli, and Trixie. Eli would constantly watch the redhead out of the corner of his eye to see if he could catch her doing anything suspicious.

Two weeks went by and she seemed like a regular member of the gang, the lack of evil activity made Eli grow bored so he eased into the idea of somebody slipping the vile into her pocket as sabotage, possibly one of Blakk's left over goons.

* * *

"Hey... dad..." Eli knocked on the slightly ajar door to his dad's study, the room had remained empty for a few years in his father's absence, Eli didn't want to dig through business that wasn't his.

"Yeah?" Will put down a pile of papers he was reading through and turned in his seat to face the boy.

"I figured... since you're back and all... I should give something back to you." Will tilted his head as Eli spoke. "There's only one infurnus in each set of caverns, and it belongs to the hero of the realm, so... Burpy is rightfully yours." Eli held out the little orange slug, a bit of sadness picked at his heart at giving his best friend up, but he knew it was the right thing to do.

"Eli..." Will breathed as he looked down at the infurnus. "You don't have to-"

"No, I want to do this, Burpy does too. I had a good run with him, but he's yours." Eli smiled to his father, reassuring the man of his decision.

Will paused for a second before returning a grin.

"Thank-you..." Will held out his hand and accepted the gift, Burpy happily joined his old master and sat comfortably on the man's shoulder.

"I gave Redhook a call, and he said that he could try and repair your blaster!" Eli looked to a desk in the corner of the room, on top of the wooden surface sat an orange blaster, one that was pretty similar to Eli's save for a few blue details along the edges. The weapon was mangled and dented, the barrel was so bent out of shape that a canister couldn't fit into it anymore. part of the handle was melted as well, most likely from exposure to lava or dark water. "It'll cost us, but he said he'd give us a discount." Eli placed his hands on his hips and looked over the damage.

"Guess that means I'm all set, I just need to get my hands on a mecha beast." Will grinned and looked up at Eli.

"You can borrow Lucky for the time being, I don't mind riding back seat." Eli smiled down to his father. He had to admit, it _was_ a little weird clinging to his dad as they drove, but it made him feel like a kid again. He got that feeling of being a child with his daddy, a feeling he never got to experience when he was younger due to his father's absence.

"Thanks..." Will nodded again. Eli gave one last quick smile and made his way out of the room to head to bed, it was late at night so both the Shanes were pretty tired.

"Hey... dad." Eli stopped halfway out the door. "I forgot to say this before. Welcome back!"

Will chuckled as the boy continued walking, he looked over to his blaster, then glanced at Burpy, before sighing and returning to his previous task.

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**i feel like i'm saying this too much... but... two reviews for the next chapter tomorrow!**


	8. Chapter 8

"...-an't let him know."

Eli shifted at the sound of the voice.

"He's getting nosey, it'll be hard to keep it from him." The next one was different, he knew this one.

"Yeah... yeah..." That one rung a bell as well. Eli listened carefully to the next few lines of dialouge and soon realized it was Kord and Pronto chatting, their voices sounded pretty distant so they must've been talking downstairs in the living room.

"Either way, we gotta keep pinning the blame on Trixie." Pronto spoke. Curiousity got the better of Eli, so he pulled himself out of bed and stumbled to the door. He was careful to make sure the door wouldn't creak as he opened it, he peered out into the dark hideout.

Pronto and Kord were sitting in the living room talking to each other, their voices were hushed, as if they were trying not to wake anybody.

"Next plan. We bring a big ol' tub of dark water in and hide it somewhere in Eli's room when he isn't home. We'll put it somewhere he'll never look until it's too late. The fumes'll ghoul his slugs eventually~" Kord chuckled as he finished speaking, Eli's heart stopped and he froze where he was kneeling.

"No..." The boy breathed as the two continued speaking. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't believe it even though he was watching it happen, he heard their words clearly. He knew this wasn't a dream either, his pounding heartbeat and the pain building in his chest let him know this was real life.

"But what about Will?" Pronto asked. "Surely we have a plan for him."

"Of course we do! He'll be busy helping Eli grieve over his slugs and help him get Doc to cure them, while their out on their little errand we'll fire off a few grenuke slugs at the right spot on top of a cliff and crush 'em under rubble." Kord brought his fist down into his palm to mimic a falling boulder and chuckled.

"Brilliant..." Pronto rubbed his hands together and grinned deviously. A sound came from the other side of the hideout, like a door opening and closing down the hall on the bottom floor.

"Let's go!" Kord hissed, rolling up a sheet of paper that they had flattened out on the table prior to their meeting. The two quickly hid all the evidence and sat down on the couch with the TV on, acting as though they were doing nothing more than watching a late night movie.

"No... no... nononononono..." Eli repeated the word to himself over and over again as he shut his door. Panic controlled his actions and he couldn't do anything more than scoot backwards into his room, stopping when his back pressed against a wall. He curled up with his face hidden in his knees and tried not to sob over the betrayal.

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**thanks to everyone giving reviews! at this rate i'll have the rest of the fic posted in no time!  
**


	9. Chapter 9

"Father!" Eli walked into his dad's study without knocking. It was about 6 am, and Eli's hair was disheveled and all over the place. Will turned around a cocked his head to the side, worried about why his son was so frantic.

"What is it?" Will began to feel worried, Eli's face was covered in sweat and his shoulders looked like they were shaking. He stood up and approached the boy, grabbing him by the shoulders and looking into his eyes.

"W-we were wrong about Trixie!" Eli started, his voice cracked slightly. "Kord and Pronto are the real traitors! They-they... last night they were ta-talking about hiding dark water in my room... th-then crushing us under rocks when we went to go and get Doc-" Eli rambled until he was cut off.

"Whoa, whoa. Slow down..." Will tried to calm the boy, gripping his shoulders a little tighter. "What's this about dark water?"

"They... I overheard them last night, Kord and Pronto. Th-they were talking about getting a tub of dark water and hiding it in my room to ghoul my slugs slowly off the fumes. In or-order to turn them back we'd ha-have to go and get an old slug of mine, a boon doc named Doc, he's a guardian and he isn't with us currently, to heal them." Eli rubbed his eyes. "Kord said they were g-gonna cause a rock slide or something and crush us on our way to get him!" Eli choked back the tears.

"Oh jeeze..." Will tapped his chin, trying to think of how to handle the situation. "You're sure this wasn't a dream?" Eli couldn't find the strength to answer, so he nodded his head vigorously. "Well... I do have one idea. I have an old hideout we can go and take refuge in until this all blows over." Will spoke his thoughts outloud. "Go grab all your slugs and meet me in the garage. Don't tell _anybody_ about where we're going- not even Trixie." Will let the boy go and headed out into the hideout. Eli nodded again and ran off to his room.


	10. Chapter 10

"You ready?" Will asked as he mounted Lucky. Eli entered the garage with a bag over his shoulder and one in his hands. The one in his hands was full of canisters and spare parts for blasters that he had dug up from Kord's workbench, the other was filled with food and a spare change of clothes for the boy.

"Yeah." Eli grunted as he hopped up and sat behind his dad, he kept his gaze held downward. A pain lingered in his chest as he thought about leaving, hopefully Trixie would be alright around the other two. Eli shook the thought off, she was tough, if anything happened she could probably snap somebody's neck if she really needed to!

"Hold on tight." Will revved the engine of the mecha beast and sped off into the surrounding forest. Eli couldn't help but turn his head and look over his shoulder, sorrow flooding his mind as the hideout shrank into the distance.


	11. Chapter 11

A large cave opened up before them. Will parked Lucky and hopped off with Eli close behind.

"I've never seen this place before..." Eli listened to his voice echo and he walked through the mouth of the cave, his slugs all chirped and trilled to hear their own echoes.

"This is one of my most well hidden hideouts. I'm the only one who knows about it." Will spoke as he walked in and lit a lantern that he had brought with him. The small flame lit up the darkness, chasing away shadows and leaving a nice warmth in their place. Burpy supplied a bit of light as well and hopped down from the man's shoulder, then proceeded to hop across the ground to sit on top of a rock with some other slugs.

Eli looked around the space, there wasn't much stuff there...

Three desks lined the back wall, each of them had an old chair tucked under them. Old papers and pencils were scattered everywhere, old picture frames filled with family portraits sat around the cave as well.

Will walked over to a far side and pulled the blanket off of the large bed that was tucked away in a darker area of the cave, dust flew up into the air and caused the man to cough. Eli wandered over to the desks and ran his hand through the dust.

"Wow..." The boy breathed as he looked at his hand, which was now a disgusting grey colour from the layer of dirt that covered it. He flicked and twisted his wrist to shake away the grime and returned to looking at the desks. A rusty knife caught his eye, different shades of red and brown showed through the dust. With a small puff of breath he blew away the dirt and revealed the scarlet stained blade that was hidden beneath.

Both edges were sharp, so Eli had to be careful while holding it. He carefully grasped the blade between his fingers and looked at the handle. It was simple and black, a circle was cut out of the base of the handle, most likely so the knife could be hung on a hook.

"Eli..." The boy hummed in response to his name. He kept the knife in hand as he looked at the dusty pictures, he wiped his thumb across the glass and revealed a picture of his face from when he was younger. "Now that we're alone, I have something... I need to talk to you about..." Will spoke. Eli turned slowly and froze when he saw the man.

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**casual reminder about those reviews! :3c**


	12. Chapter 12

He expected to see friendly blue eyes and a sweet smile. Instead he was met with golden locks that reflected the dull light of the lantern in his hand.

"It's good to see you again, Eli." The teenager smirked, teal eyes flashed as he stepped foward.

"Tw... Twist?" Eli stuttered, he tried to step away but his body wouldn't respond due to the shock. "What did you do with my dad!?" Eli shouted, every muscle in his body clenched as he ground his teeth through his anger and sorrow.

"I didn't do anything." Twist chuckled and folded his hands behind his back. "I thought you would've noticed. I _was_ your dad." Twist stopped and laughed louder. Eli's breath caught in his throat. "By the way," Twist continued speaking. "Thanks for telling me all that stuff. For telling me about the surface, and about your family." The blonde smirked.

That was it.

Eli couldn't control his body.

"Ahhh!" Eli yelled out as he lunged forward. He brought the hand that held the knife up and tried to plunge it down into the flesh of the other teenager, but Twist managed to stop the attack with ease, his hand wrapped around Eli's wrist nicely and it didn't take too much force to hold him back. Eli brought his other hand back in a fist and swung forward, once again stopped by Twist's hands.

"Nice try..." Twist chukled and brought his face forward, a sly smirk stained his lips.

"Why!?" Eli cried, his face twisted in agony, tears burned in his eyes before sliding down his cheeks. "Why did you do this!?" Eli screamed through trembling lips.

"Easy. because I wanted to break you..." Twist let go of Eli and stepped back as the boy fell to his knees. Eli's shoulders shook as he sobbed. "It looks like I did a pretty good job~" Twist chimed.

Eli didn't respond, he had one hand gripping the knife and pressed to his thigh to hold his weight up, the other hand covered his mouth as he cried. Navy locks shifted as he lifted his head and locked his blue eyes onto Twist.

"You really are pathetic." The blonde shook his head and lifted a foot. He pressed his toe to Eli's chest and pushed the boy over with ease, Eli now lay on his back on the stone floor, he used his elbows to prop himself up.

"You're sick..." Eli spat, then sniffled silently. He rolled over and lifted himself up so he was standing and facing Twist, he gripped the knife in his hand still.

"Aren't you gonna ask how I did it?" Twist asked, still looking down to Eli since he was quite a bit taller than the Shane. Eli tilted his head and stayed silent, a heavy glare stuck to his face. "It was easy to fool you into thinking that Trixie was a traitor, but that was mostly a test." Twist spoke even though he wasn't given an answer. "After you fell for that I knew Loki's illusions would work on you, setting up that scene with your friends was so much fun! I had to try pretty hard not to laugh~" Twist continued telling his story, his voice carried that sweet tone that Eli despised with all his being, one that was usually used to mock the boy. "The rest was easy. I honestly didn't think you'd fall for the act at first, I thought you knew your father better than that!" Eli growled slightly. "But, I guess you were so desperate to see him again you forgot a few details~" Twist chimed and looked to the mangled blaster that was left on the bed. The air around it turned crimson for a second before red and black smoke appeared, clouding the smaller area, and disappeared, a ghoul sat in place of the weapon. "Good work, Loki." Twist picked up his partner and began walking out from the cave.

"That's it!? You're just gonna tell me all this then leave!?" Eli stepped foward as he shouted, his voice echoed off the cavern walls.

"Hmmm..." Twist rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Yep. Like I said, I just wanted to piss you off." Twist seemed to sing the last part.

"What about that earth quake? The energy wave? What was all that!?" Eli's voice betrayed him as he shouted.

"Oh, that? That was easy. All I did was plant a few bombs around Slugterra, the energy thing was just a well placed X-mitter!" Twist chimed, he resumed his exit and payed no attention to Eli's scream of rage from behind him. The knife fell to the ground as Eli clutched both sides of his head and continued sobbing. The anger burned in his chest and his throat stung from the pain he felt.

Twist skipped down the mountain path and didn't look over his shoulder until he reached the bottom. The grass bent underneath his feet as he looked up to the mouth of the cave.

Okay...

Maybe he felt a little bad about all this...


	13. Chapter 13

"Eli!" Kord called as Eli rode up to the hideout, he had his head hung low and his eyes were empty. Burpy sat on the boy's shoulder, giving his best attempt to cheer his slinger up. "Bro? You alright?" The cavetroll tried to put his hand onto Eli's other shoulder, but the boy shook him off within a second and didn't even look up. Eli slid off the back of Lucky and headed inside, he ignored Trixie and Pronto's greetings.

"Wait... where's your father?" Pronto asked when Eli was halfway up the stairs. Eli froze and grit his teeth, Burpy shot a quick look to the molenoid, a quick glare to say that statement wasn't entirely welcome at the moment. His emotions got the better of him and he threw the bags he was carrying over the railing to the floor below, the sound of glass shattering ran through the air as canisters broke. Eli dashed up the stairs and into his room, he slammed the door shut and began screaming into his pillow until his voice grew hoarse and he fell asleep.


	14. Chapter 14

"Eli..." Trixie knocked on the door and slowly opened it. Eli responded by chucking a pillow at the intruder. The door closed upon impact, leaving Trixie out in the hall.

It was like this for two weeks. Eli refused to leave his room or let anybody enter. The only time he left was when everybody was asleep, he'd usually down a glass of water and inhale a couple of sandwiches before disappearing again. On a few occassions running water could be heard as Eli bathed, washing away sweat and dirt from his skin and hair.

His slugs constantly urged him to leave, to go out into the world again for fresh air and exercise, but the boy ignored their concerns for his health. He continued sitting around planning on a way to get back at Twist, a way to keep the blonde quiet about the surface...

After many more days he finally composed himself and confronted his friends. He told them all about what had happened with Twist. About how all of this was some sick joke just to upset Eli. Kord gave Eli a pat on the back and sat with him for an hour afterwards just in case Eli needed to say anything else. Trixie and Pronto left the two, both hiding away and giving them privacy.

* * *

**ANND that's the end! thanks so much to everyone for reading, i appreciate it a lot! i hope u all enjoyed! i'm always open for ideas for future stories!**


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